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typical of these are engineering aides, technicians, inspectors, draftsmen, and the like. Before the middle of the 18th century, large-scale construction work was usually placed in the hands of military engineers . Military engineering involved such work as the preparation of topographical maps, the location, design, and construction of roads and bridges; and the building of forts and docks; Military Engineering below. In the 18th century, however, the term civil engineering came into use to describe engineering work that was performed by civilians for nonmilitary purposes. With the increasing use of machinery in the 19th century, mechanical engineering was recognized as a separate branch of engineering, and later mining engineering was similarly recognized. The technical advances of the 19th century greatly broadened the field of engineering and introduced a large number of engineering specialties, and the rapidly changing demands of the socioeconomic environment in the 20th century have widened the scope even further. The main branches of engineering are discussed below in alphabetical order. The engineer who works in any of these fields usually requires a basic knowledge of the other engineering fields, because most engineering problems are complex and interrelated. Thus a chemical engineer designing a plant for the electrolytic refining of metal ores must deal with the design of structures, machinery, and electrical devices, as well as with purely chemical problems. Besides the principal branches discussed below, engineering includes many more specialties than can be described here, such as acoustical engineering ( Acoustics), architectural engineering ( Architecture: Construction), automotive engineering, ceramic engineering, transportation engineering, and textile engineering. Aeronautics deals with the whole field of design, manufacture, maintenance, testing, and use of aircraft for both civilian and military purposes. It involves the knowledge of aerodynamics, structural design, propulsion engines, navigation, communication, and other related areas. Airplane; Aviation. Aerospace engineering is closely allied to aeronautics, but is concerned with the flight of vehicles in space, beyond the earth's atmosphere, and includes the study and development of rocket engines, artificial satellites, and spacecraft for the exploration of outer space. Space Exploration. This branch of engineering is concerned with the design, construction, and management of factories in which the essential processes consist of chemical reactions. Because of the diversity of the materials dealt with, the practice, for more than 50 years, has been to analyze chemical engineering problems in terms of fundamental unit operations or unit processes such as the grinding or pulverizing of solids. Modern engineering is characterized by the broad application of what is known as systems engineering principles. The systems approach is a methodology of decision-making in design, operation, or construction that adopts (1) the formal process included in what is known as the scientific method; (2) an interdisciplinary, or team, approach, using specialists from not only the various engineering disciplines, but from legal, social, aesthetic, and behavioral fields as well; (3) a formal sequence of procedure employing the principles of operations research. In effect, therefore, transportation engineering in its broadest sense includes not only design of the transportation system and building of its lines and rolling stock, but also determination of the traffic requirements of the route followed. It is also concerned with setting up efficient and safe schedules, and the interaction of the system with the community and the environment. Engineers in industry work not only with machines but also with people, to determine, for example, how machines can be operated most efficiently by the workers. A small change in the location of the controls of a machine or of its position with relation to other machines or equipment, or a change in the muscular movements of the operator, often results in greatly increased production. This type of engineering work is called time-study engineering. A related field of engineering, human-factors engineering, also known as ergonomics, received wide attention in the late 1970s and the '80s when the safety of nuclear reactors was questioned following serious accidents that were caused by operator errors, design failures, and malfunctioning equipment. Human-factors engineering ks to establish criteria for the efficient, human-centered design of, among other things, the large, complicated control panels that monitor and govern nuclear reactor operations. Among various recent trends in the engineering profession, licensing and computerization are the most widespread. Today, many engineers, like doctors and lawyers, are licensed by the state. Approvals by professionally licensed engineers are required for construction of public and commercial structures, especially installations where public and worker safety is a consideration. The trend in modern engineering offices is overwhelmingly toward computerization. Computers are increasingly used for solving complex problems as well as for handling, storing, and generating the enormous volume of data modern engineers must work with. The National Academy of Engineering, founded in 1964 as a private organization, sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages new research, and is concerned with the relationship of engineering to society.
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